Governor vetoes farmworkers overtime bill

LEGISLATION

State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, center, chair of the Government Organization committee, questions Dr. Kevin Reilly, deputy director of the California Department of Health Services, left, about his agency's response to the recent E. coli outbreak in spinach, during a hearing held at the Capitol in Sacramento, Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006. Florez said state and federal food and health agencies had ample warning but didn't do enough to prevent the E. coli outbreaks like the ones that killed three, sickened hundreds, and shut down California's spinach and lettuce production in recent weeks.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Ran on: 10-12-2006
State Sen. Dean Florez (center) questions Dr. Kevin Reilly of the Health Services Department (left). less

State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, center, chair of the Government Organization committee, questions Dr. Kevin Reilly, deputy director of the California Department of Health Services, left, about his agency's ... more

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP

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State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, center, chair of the Government Organization committee, questions Dr. Kevin Reilly, deputy director of the California Department of Health Services, left, about his agency's response to the recent E. coli outbreak in spinach, during a hearing held at the Capitol in Sacramento, Wednesday, Oct. 11,2006. Florez said state and federal food and health agencies had ample warning but didn't do enough to prevent the E. coli outbreaks like the ones that killed three, sickened hundreds, and shut down California's spinach and lettuce production in recent weeks.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Ran on: 10-12-2006
State Sen. Dean Florez (center) questions Dr. Kevin Reilly of the Health Services Department (left). less

State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, center, chair of the Government Organization committee, questions Dr. Kevin Reilly, deputy director of the California Department of Health Services, left, about his agency's ... more

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP

Governor vetoes farmworkers overtime bill

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have made California's hourly agricultural employees the only farmworkers in the nation to receive overtime pay after 40 hours a week or eight hours a day.

In vetoing the measure, Schwarzenegger cited the fragile economy and said that extending overtime protections could put farms out of business, or result in lower paychecks for agricultural workers because farmers would hire more people and cut hours to avoid paying overtime.

The bill's author, Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter (Kern County), blasted the veto. In a statement released by his office, Florez said the Republican governor sided "with a labor practice derived from the segregationist South," and that the veto means it is "acceptable to treat one class of people differently from all others."

"The governor had a chance to make history," said Florez, the son of farmworkers. "He had a chance to wipe a 70-year-old shame off the books of California. Instead, he has decided to side with the shameful."

Schwarzenegger, however, wrote in his veto message that agricultural work is different from other industries and noted that federal law exempts farmworkers from overtime altogether. The governor also wrote that he has signed other legislation that helped farmworkers, including a bill that increased the minimum wage, and noted that he worked with Florez to enact groundbreaking heat stress regulations.

"Unfortunately, this measure, while well-intended, will not improve the lives of California's agricultural workers and instead will result in additional burdens on California businesses, increased unemployment and lower wages," Schwarzenegger wrote.

The bill, approved by lawmakers on largely party-line votes, would have represented a fundamental shift in the way the state's estimated 700,000 agricultural workers are treated under the law. In addition to the overtime protections, SB1121 would have given the men and women who work in California's roughly 25 million acres of farmland the right to take one day off every seven.

Currently, farmworkers are only eligible for overtime pay after 60 hours a week or 10 hours a day; they have been exempt from labor protections enjoyed by millions of other California workers since 1941.

Farmers opposed the bill, saying it isn't fair to compare field workers to workers in other industries. They noted that farm laborers often put in long hours in the summer but are hard-pressed to get work during the winter months.

Farmworkers in California average $10.25 an hour, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Farmworker Justice.